Celebrity Pug Sees Stars at Festival of Books

April 24, 2012 By Guest Blogger

When canine correspondent Phoebe Rose’s Mom (Sheila Appleby Williams) suggested a visit to a book festival filled with famous faces, the roving Rover reporter thought that attending would be a novel idea. The Pug with a love of the printed page, who relays her literary adventure in the following report, writes about life in L.A. from a lap dog’s perspective in her blog A Traveling Pug, and offers tips for her tail-wagging chums on her new website, Posh Pet Travel.

The 17th Annual Festival of Books,held at the USC campus, attracted over 140,000 book loving Angelenos (and canines) including Phoebe Rose, a pooch with a penchant for good literature.

The Festival of Books, “A celebration of the written word” is a free public event including author events, storytelling, cooking demonstrations and poetry readings with nearly 300 exhibitor booths representing booksellers, publishers, literacy and cultural organizations.

Canine expert Warren Eckstein, host of the nationally syndicated “The Pet Show,” was “spotted” broadcasting live – but took a moment to pose with pal Phoebe, who first met Warren at the Blessing of the Animals last summer.

Phoebe and Warren Eckstein

Devoted animal lover and Pug fan, Tori Spelling (pregnant and glowing) appeared on the LA Times stage to answer questions about her new book “CelebraTori: Unleashing Your Inner Party Planner to Entertain Friends and Family” and gave Phoebe a few tips on showing her best side to the camera.

Tori gave Phoebe directions on how to present her best side to camera.

Tori and Phoebe

Actor John Cusack drew large crowds and held a Q & A for his upcoming movie The Raven.

Crowds congregated to hear John Cusack

John Cusack attracted large crowds to LA Times stage

Television personality Riki Lake, Mom to 2 furry babies (both of whom are scheduled to appear on her new talk show) signed autographs and touted “Never Say Never:Finding a Life That Fits.” Vegan, Marilu Henner, “Total Memory Makeover”, Sugar Ray Leonard, author of “The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring, and Jeff Kinney popular author of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” (the plight of a middle school “underdog”) were on hand. Kinney recalled his first book signing in LA 5 years ago-where one young fan showed up. He was “very happy” to address the huge
crowd of devoted “Wimpy Kid” followers.

A host of other literary celebs included: Actress Molly Shannon who gave a wildly exhuberant reading of her first book “Tilly the Trickster”, Florence Henderson, promoted her “Life is not a Stage” tell all and iconic juvenile author Judy Blume, celebrity chef Michael Voltaggio, author of “VOLT ink,” and Dancing with the Stars pro Cheryl Burke, “Dancing Lessons: How I Found Passion and Potential on the Dance Floor and in Life.” And that was just on Saturday.

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Welcome! We're Paris Permenter and John Bigley, a husband-wife team of professional writers. We've authored 33 pet and travel books, and we love to travel with our rescue dogs, Irie and Tiki.

DogTipper is the dog blog of our online store, PawZaar.com. Featuring products for pet lovers from around the globe, our products lend a helping paw. Ten percent of the proceeds from every purchase is donated to the week's featured pet rescue.